Someone suggested I should write a post about how I deal with typical snags of the writing process, so two come to mind as not really playing out at all how most writers seem to mention they face. 1) Writers block and 2) characters running away with the plot.
1) I had to finish my current project during lockdown, when I had a lot of anxiety and really struggling with my mental heath. I cannot say I experienced typical "writers block," but I can discuss how the writing process went for me and where I experienced hiccups.
I did not outline this book. I sketched out key structural elements as needed. Such as timelines and relationship dynamics. This was a speculative fiction project and it started with a question "what if there were more examples in historical record of large mesopotamian region empires that formed civilization that set different examples of women in leadership?" I started very loosely. I intended to write the book in 4-5 parts, and I had a rough sketch of plot points for the first three, concluding with going to war, which would then come next.
Where I mostly hit snags was on how to construct the plot around the war. This was the procrastinated and wrote around for weeks. I literally wrote every single chapter and scene in the book that I could before I got to the war. I wrote the pre-war hype up speech before I knew how the war was playing out, for example. Then I spent several weeks studying the cultures from which I was drawing inspiration and their battle straties, as well as historical reference. That actually helped a lot. Once I understood fully who the enemy was, that there had actually been a conflict that this could immitate in history, and how the players were going to move on the battleffield, describing the actions were less intimidating. I am definitely someone who believes in overpreparation can be a key way to reduce anxiety.
In addition, I did find a suggestion I have seen written elsewhere helped me. My cousin who is a professional writer told me to keep sticking with the characters, and to know that they would tell me how the events were supposed to play out. When I hit a snag and had a scene or chapter I was not sure where to start, going to write a different scene where I had zero plot quesitons and was very easy to write definitely helped. I can recommend this from personal experience. Writing a scene where I do not have to puzzle how the plot is supposed to come together gets me into the voice and head of the characters, and then it helps while I am writing that scene, to have an aha moment where I need to start the scene that I feel stuck.
2) A question I see writers ask a lot or mention is that they have a plot, and they write the characters and get to know the characters, and the characters' personalities and reactions to the events of their world no longer go in the "planned" direction. Because of how I write, this is an idea that actually I find very amusing. This project I was discovery writing. My first novel I wrote in a similar way, but that's another story for another time about why it did not work out as smoothly.
Because this was a work of speculative fiction, with the starting point I mentioned in a question, I was getting to know the characters and their world by writing them. I knew roughly what events were happening, as I mentioned, in the first three chapters, but I relied heavily on the characters to help tell me how we got there. This is a technique, again, I can highlyh personally recommend. I could not imagine trying to dictate to characters I did not know yet, how they were going to interact with one another or react to the events in the book. However, of course, if you are a writer who spends a year outlining and developing these characters, then they may fit together more seamlessly. In addition, when people pose the hypothetical question what degrees you need to have to be a writer, I always say the best quality to develop as a writer is the one of understanding people.
If you spend ten years studying how people interact and react to other people, relationships, and events, in your own relationships as well as around you, I find it much better preparation to understanding how your characters will behave in the environment and world you create. That can help your characters and the events in your plot you expect to happen be better integrated.
For me, I did not experience the problem that my characters were going in a different direction from the plot. I was more concerned with the horrible things I felt I was doing to characters I loved. I knew all along that a main point of the protagonists arc was going to see her most supportive relationship challenged. Once I understood the context of those events, and how they would happen, I knew what the climax was going to be and how it would crack her. It was one of the first scenes I wrote while avoiding the war. After I wrote it, I was crying and apologizing and half promising/ half asking her how I could fix it, and I could not stop writing until it was "fixed." (Which then helped me understand what came after the conflict for these relationships.) That's how my plot developped, not knowing what would happen to the relationships, and letting the characters tell me. That is one way to assure yourself that you are not relying on a plot to happen that your characters fight about with you!
Hope you are all experiencing solutions to either of these problems. Have you experienced either of these? Are there other snags you experience in your writing process? Comment below if you have any to share!
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